Morgan Stanley Investment Management today announced it has raised $785 million for the North Haven Senior Loan Fund L.P. and its related vehicles (collectively “NH SLF”) exceeding its original fundraising target. When combined with target leverage, NH SLF has approximately $1.1 billion of capital available for investment. NH SLF seeks to invest in privately negotiated senior secured loans issued by lower middle market companies in North America.

XRI Holdings, LLC (“XRI”), a leading water midstream company with owned infrastructure throughout the Permian Basin, announced today that it has acquired the water treatment and recycling division of Fountain Quail Energy Services, LLC (“Fountain Quail Water Treatment”). Fountain Quail Water Treatment is a leading produced water treatment, recycle, and reuse business with operations throughout the Permian Basin and other key producing basins across the United States.

Optimism abounds that the markets are on the right path for 2019, and we agree! We believe easy monetary policy and lower real yields will support economies and lengthen the business cycle. The Global Fixed Income Team shares their views.

In this video, Andrew Harmstone looks back at the experiences and discusses the most relevant and inspiring in shaping him as an individual, and ultimately in the way his team expresses their active investment approach.

In late 2018, the GBaR team’s defensive positioning helped protect portfolios from falling equity markets. A common question from clients as the team entered 2019 was ‘what would make you more positive on equities?’ Watch Christian Goldsmith, Portfolio Specialist of the GBaR team’s latest market update video to explain.

While alternative risk premia have existed for some time—and have long been used by hedge funds—they have only recently begun to be evaluated by a broad swath of investors. Given the growth of investor interest in this space, we thought it timely to share our insights on what constitutes effective due diligence.

Trying to figure out which asset class could become a break-out performer in 2019? The Convertible Bond Team discusses how convertible bonds can be a valuable portfolio diversification tool, amid higher rates and volatility next year.

Vbrick, a Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital portfolio company and the leader in enterprise video platform solutions, today announced that Christian Rockwell, an accomplished marketing executive for high-growth technology businesses, has been appointed as Chief Marketing Officer. In this role Rockwell will be responsible for marketing strategy and will lead the global marketing organization for the rapidly-growing company.

As we look ahead to the new year, the key question for liquidity investors is what is the Federal Reserve’s neutral rate. This inferred rate will likely determine the path of interest rates in 2019 and beyond, as the Fed shifts their policy towards managing around neutral.

Medsphere Systems Corporation, the leading provider of affordable and interoperable healthcare information technology (IT) solutions and services, today announced the closing of $32 million in financing from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and East West Bank. The company will use the funds to address accelerating demand for Medsphere’s comprehensive suite of healthcare IT solutions and services, and for strategic acquisitions.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management announced it has raised over $1.4 billion for North Haven Tactical Value Fund LP and its related funds, significantly exceeding its original fundraising target. The Fund seeks to invest in private, long-term and often illiquid opportunities that are identified primarily by leveraging the global Morgan Stanley network and come from a wide range of asset classes, sectors and geographies.

Investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (MSCP) today announced the sale of their majority interest in Hojeij Branded Foods (HBF), a leading North American airport food and beverage concessionaire, to Lagardère Travel Retail (Paris:MMB) for $330 million. MSCP acquired a majority stake in HBF from its founders in July 2015 in a transaction that valued the company at $155 million.

PPC Flexible Packaging, LLC, which is backed by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners and is a leading provider of custom flexible packaging for specialty food and healthcare markets, today announced the acquisition of Payson, Utah–based Temkin International.

Samanage, the service success company, today announced a $30 million investment from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, the growth-focused private investment platform within Morgan Stanley Investment Management. Samanage seeks to accelerate their exceptional year-over-year growth and expand their global market share in the IT Service Management (ITSM) industry.

Visionary Integration Professionals (VIP) today announced an investment by Morgan Stanley Credit Partners. The new funding will further accelerate the growth of VIP and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Meridian Knowledge Solutions (Meridian), based in Reston, VA.

Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, the growth-focused private investment platform within Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM), announced that it has closed on approximately $400 million of capital commitments for North Haven Expansion Equity LP and its related funds, exceeding its original fundraising target capital commitments by nearly $100 million.

Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, the Asia-focused private equity investment platform within Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM), today announced that it has secured over US$440 million in capital commitments for North Haven Thai Private Equity LP and its related funds, versus an initial target of US$300 million. The Fund was launched in partnership with Bangkok Bank, a market-leading Thai financial institution.

In much the same way that long-only investors have considered “passive” investing as a way to adjust their exposures efficiently and to reduce cost, alternatives investors have begun to explore systematic and index-based solutions—such as “alternative risk premia”—as a way to achieve those same objectives. In this paper, we seek to introduce the concept of alternative risk premia, explain how investors can access them, and present the potential benefits and drawbacks associated with them.

Since late spring, there has been a sharp divergence in performance between the U.S. and the rest of the world, with investors flocking into the U.S. market. We expect this spike to fully correct eventually and the recent volatility has provided signs of this, though there may be further to go.

As with any scarce resource, human capital needs to be protected and nurtured. We discuss global trends and how engaging employees, offering flexible work arrangements, providing training and promoting diversity, can attract talent and increase companies’ competitiveness.

Global Macro is an investment style that is highly opportunistic and has the potential to generate strong risk-adjusted returns in challenging markets. Against a backdrop of geopolitical uncertainty and potentially increased volatility, we felt it would be timely to share our insights on the space and explain why we believe now could be an opportune time to make an allocation to Global Macro.

Investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Energy Partners (MSEP), part of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, and Midland, Texas-based Catalyst Energy Services LLC announced a strategic partnership whereby MSEP has made a majority equity investment in Catalyst to support the growth of the Company’s pressure pumping and other complementary services in premier U.S. oil and gas basins.

Investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners (MSCP), the Private Equity team within Morgan Stanley Investment Management, announced today that they have completed an investment in Comar Holding Company, LLC. MSCP partnered with the current management team, led by Michael Ruggieri, who will remain CEO and continue to drive organic and acquisition growth.

Vbrick, the leading provider of enterprise video software, today announced it has received $20 million in funding led by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, with participation from existing investors Acme Nova and Adams Capital. The funding will build upon the rapid adoption of Vbrick’s video platform into the enterprise market by accelerating the pace of innovation, growing sales and marketing, and fueling the company’s partner ecosystem.

Cohesity, the leader of hyperconverged secondary storage, today announced it raised $250 million in an oversubscribed Series D funding round led by the SoftBank Vision Fund with strong participation from strategic investors Cisco Investments, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. The investment is a testament to Cohesity’s leadership in transforming data center and cloud operations with web-scale simplicity for secondary data.

Fusion (NASDAQ:FSNN), a leading provider of cloud services, announced today that on May 4, 2018, it closed a private placement (the “Private Placement”) of 1,523,811 shares of its common stock. The shares were priced at $5.25 per share for gross proceeds of $8.0 million. Proceeds from the Private Placement will be used by Fusion for general corporate purposes.

Fusion (NASDAQ:FSNN), a Morgan Stanley Credit Partners portfolio company and a leading provider of cloud services, announced that on May 4, 2018, it closed its previously-announced acquisition of the Cloud and Business Services business of Birch Communications Holdings, Inc. The acquisition was completed through a merger of a wholly-owned subsidiary of Fusion with and into Birch.

In an exclusive interview with Bloomberg, Kristian Heugh explains why he and his team remain steadfast on the opportunities for bottom-up stock pickers in Asia, and believers in the Warren Buffett-inspired strategy that’s helped them stay ahead of peers.

Concentra Analytics, the creator of Software as a Service (“SaaS”) data solutions used to visualize, model and track business operations, today announced the completion of a £41 million growth equity investment led by One Peak Partners, with participation from co-investors Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, Joseph Schull, Connected Capital, as well as existing shareholder, City Securities.

In an interview with Hong Kong's South China Morning Post, China A Share portfolio manager, Gary Cheung describes how companies that offer services to China's growing middle class, along with tourism and environmental technology are areas where growth prospects can be easily seen.

VizExplorer today announced that it has closed a strategic investment round by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital. The investment will enable VizExplorer to scale business operations, enhance its analytics platform and deliver new solutions for additional verticals including manufacturing, entertainment venues and healthcare.

Brazos Midstream Holdings, LLC ("Brazos" or the "Company") and its financial sponsor, Old Ironsides Energy, today announced they have entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Delaware Basin subsidiary companies to North Haven Infrastructure Partners II ("NHIP II") and related funds for approximately $1.75 billion in cash. Closing is expected in the second quarter of 2018 and is subject to customary approvals and closing conditions.

Jana Small Finance Bank (formerly Janalakshmi Financial Services, India’s leading micro-finance company), a Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia portfolio holding, announced commencement of its banking operations. To cover its extensive customer base, Jana Small Finance Bank will initially open 19 branches across 18 states and expand to 200 banking outlets including the 25% unbanked rural branches by June 2018.

Orthofix International N.V. (NASDAQ:OFIX), a global medical device company backed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital and focused on musculoskeletal healing products and value-added services, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Spinal Kinetics Inc., a privately held developer and manufacturer of artificial cervical and lumbar discs.

Fisher Container Holdings, LLC, which is backed by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners and is a leading provider of custom flexible packaging for food and healthcare industries, today announced the rebranding of its subsidiaries Fisher Container, LLC and Packaging Products Corporation, LLC into the new entity PPC Flexible Packaging.

CoAdvantage Corporation, a Morgan Stanley Capital Partners portfolio company and a leading national provider of strategic human resource solutions for small to mid-sized companies, today announced that Clinton Burgess has been appointed Chief Executive Officer of the combined CoAdvantage organization. Mr. Burgess assumes this role following his prior successful leadership as CEO of Progressive Employer Management Company (PEMCO), which merged with CoAdvantage in October 2017.

Tiff’s Treats, the Austin-based company that created the warm cookie delivery concept, today announced a $25 million investment round led by investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, the growth-focused private investment platform within Morgan Stanley Investment Management. The Series D investment will be used primarily to support further national expansion and continued investment in the company’s technology leading ordering and delivery platform.

Opera TV, a Morgan Stanley Credit Partners portfolio company and the global market leader in enabling OTT, today introduced its new brand identity, including a logo and website, meant to better illustrate the company’s mission to enable entertainment everywhere through extraordinary OTT products and services. Vewd will officially launch at IBC from September 15-19, where it will also showcase enhancements to its core technology and preview its latest breakthrough products.

The Counterpoint Global Team researches autonomous vehicles, which use a suite of sensors, actuators and a central computer to "perceive" the environment and automate the driving process. This technology could change our conception of personal transportation.

Fusion (NASDAQ: FSNN), a Morgan Stanley Credit Partners portfolio company and a leading cloud services provider, announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the Cloud and Business Services customers, operations and infrastructure of privately-held Birch Communications, which represents the majority of Birch's current revenues. The transaction is expected to close by the end of 2017.

Our location in Hong Kong gives us a unique perspective on the risks and opportunities of investing in China, a market we believe is ripe with opportunity for bottom-up stock picking, particularly in the consumer, internet, healthcare and education industries.

Janalakshmi Financial Services (JFS), a Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia portfolio holding and India’s largest microfinance organization, today announced the receipt of final license from Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to set up Small Finance Bank. The Small Finance Bank will commence operations in the second quarter of the current financial year. JFS plans to set up 300 bank branches during the year covering the major locations in India.

Morgan Stanley Capital Partners announces an investment in Fisher Container via a partnership with experienced plastics and packaging executive, Kevin Keneally, and the current Fisher management team to acquire the company.

The Counterpoint Global Team analyzes clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), a tool for genetic research that could birth new industries and disrupt existing medical treatments.

Kristian Heugh defines the key differentiators and core values of his team’s investment process, focusing on competitive advantage and quality companies able to create value through growth.

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